Teaching and Learning With Global Partners
What are some effective strategies for teaching and learning that prepare students to be 21st-century global leaders and enable them to communicate, collaborate, and co-create with international peers? Students at The International School of the Americas participated in the Flat ClassroomTM – Net Generation Education Project with peers from fifteen schools in seven different countries. Find out how they used Web 2.0 technologies, including a wiki, a social bookmarking group, and an educational networking site, to researched the future of educational technology, create multi-media projects, and share their findings with a worldwide audience. Participants will discover ways to adapt these strategies and tools to their own classrooms and school contexts.
Note: Additional resources that came up during the session are listed and linked at the bottom of this page.
Introductions
Honor Moorman, teacher and dean of instruction for English and Social Studies at The International School of the Americas in San Antonio, TX
Email: honor (dot) moorman (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: honormoorman
Activity #1: Introduction to the Global Leadership Performance Outcomes
Step 1 - Use highlighters and sticky notes to actively read the indicators in each of the four domains Step 2 - Turn and talk to your neighbor about what you noticed
To Look at Later:
Lesson Plans for January - Intro to 21c GL - Lessons on Global Leadership, Technology in Society, and Social Responsibility
Activity #2: Exploration of what it means to be a digital citizen
Step 1 - Will You TypeWith.me? Please click here to go to our TypeWith.me page (TypeWith.me is a tool for real-time text collaboration.) Step 2 - Type your name in the box at the top right, and then add your answer to the question What does it mean to be a digital citizen?
(To see how students in the 21cGL class answered this question at the beginning of the semester, go to their Digital Citizenship Reflections) Step 3 - Once everyone has contributed an answer, we will look at the collaborative text we've created using a Wordle.
(If you're already familiar with Wordle, you might also like Tagul and Tagxedo)
Lessons Based on PBS Frontline Documentary: Digital Nation
To Look at Later:
Lesson plans for February - Digital Nation lessons
This gave students an introduction to the experience of communicating and collaborating asynchronously on a wiki.
Students created Six Word Stories about life in the digital age, which we submitted to the official PBS Frontline: Digital Nation website (click the green frogs)
This task introduced students to Google docs, Creative Commons resources, incorporating hyperlinks in citations, and publishing work to the world wide web.
Activity #4: Following in the Students' Digital Footprints
Let's look at the journey of an individual student through this project . . .
See what evidence of the Global Leadership Performance Outcomes you find in their work.
Augmented Reality page she created on our class wiki in the process of creating her video - completely her idea; no other student created a video this way
You might also be interested in these other opportunities to connect your students globally . . .
Global Issues Networks
Global Issues Network - students working together internationally to develop solutions for global issues Global Citizen Corps - an international movement of youth who connect globally and act locally, determined to make a difference CauseCast - explore issues while connecting with a community of people wanting to make a difference DoSomething.org - using the power of online to get teens to do something good offline TakingITGlobal - online community of youth interested in global issues and creating positive change Youth Media Exchange - an online social network for youth interested in using digital media tools to share information on major global issues The People Speak - a community of young people who are passionate about global issues YouthNoise - find, explore, and network a cause Voices of Youth (UNICEF) - explore, speak out, take action on issues related to human rights and social change
After watching Hans Rosling's TEDTalk on global population growth this week , you might be thinking about how to use Gapminder (visual data analysis) in the classroom
(Note: All TEDTalks include interactive transcripts if you click on the button at top right to open them. This is a great way to do text-based activities with the talks and even skip straight to a particular place in the video by clicking on the transcript!)
This Prezi has some ideas to get you started: Constructing Global Understanding with Gapminder
Table of Contents
The World is Flat and Your Classroom Can Be, Too:
Teaching and Learning With Global PartnersWhat are some effective strategies for teaching and learning that prepare students to be 21st-century global leaders and enable them to communicate, collaborate, and co-create with international peers? Students at The International School of the Americas participated in the Flat ClassroomTM – Net Generation Education Project with peers from fifteen schools in seven different countries. Find out how they used Web 2.0 technologies, including a wiki, a social bookmarking group, and an educational networking site, to researched the future of educational technology, create multi-media projects, and share their findings with a worldwide audience. Participants will discover ways to adapt these strategies and tools to their own classrooms and school contexts.
A breakout session facilitated at the Primary Source Summer Institute: Teaching for Global Understanding in the 21st Century
Note: Additional resources that came up during the session are listed and linked at the bottom of this page.
Introductions
Honor Moorman, teacher and dean of instruction for English and Social Studies at The International School of the Americas in San Antonio, TXEmail: honor (dot) moorman (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: honormoorman
Course Overview - Introduction to 21cGL
Introduction to 21st Century Global Leadership at ISA - Course DescriptionInspired by the 21st Century Literacies defined by the National Council of Teachers of English and the Global Leadership Performance Outcomes developed by the Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network
Activity #1: Introduction to the Global Leadership Performance Outcomes
Step 1 - Use highlighters and sticky notes to actively read the indicators in each of the four domainsStep 2 - Turn and talk to your neighbor about what you noticed
To Look at Later:
Lesson Plans for January - Intro to 21c GL - Lessons on Global Leadership, Technology in Society, and Social Responsibility
Activity #2: Exploration of what it means to be a digital citizen
Step 1 - Will You TypeWith.me? Please click here to go to our TypeWith.me page (TypeWith.me is a tool for real-time text collaboration.)Step 2 - Type your name in the box at the top right, and then add your answer to the question What does it mean to be a digital citizen?
(To see how students in the 21cGL class answered this question at the beginning of the semester, go to their Digital Citizenship Reflections)
Step 3 - Once everyone has contributed an answer, we will look at the collaborative text we've created using a Wordle.
(If you're already familiar with Wordle, you might also like Tagul and Tagxedo)
Here are your definitions of digital citizenship:
And here's your the Wordle created from those definitions of digital citizenship
Lessons Based on PBS Frontline Documentary: Digital Nation
To Look at Later:
Lesson plans for February - Digital Nation lessons
This gave students an introduction to the experience of communicating and collaborating asynchronously on a wiki.
Students created Six Word Stories about life in the digital age, which we submitted to the official PBS Frontline: Digital Nation website (click the green frogs)
This task introduced students to Google docs, Creative Commons resources, incorporating hyperlinks in citations, and publishing work to the world wide web.
Activity #3
Watch this short video (submitted to the PBS Teachers Innovation Challenge) for an overview of the Digital Nation lessons and an introduction to the NetGenEd ProjectAlternative Activity #3
For a written overview of the NetGenEd Project, here's a one-page article that was published in our school district's employee newsletterNetGenEd Project
Introduction to the Flat Classroom Project - NetGenEd 2010 - More About NetGenEdProject Structure Overview
Teachers met weekly in Elluminate (use Elluminate for free by joining LearnCentral)
Team Matrix - 15 classes, 7 different countries - students on international teams - based on interests in tech trend and net gen norm
GrownUpDigital Ning - educational networking site for team building and peer interaction - here's the ISA Group
NetGenEd Wiki - collaborative workspace for synthesizing and communicating research findings
Diigo Group - social bookmarking for highlighting, annotating, tagging, saving, and sharing online resources
Activity #4: Following in the Students' Digital Footprints
Let's look at the journey of an individual student through this project . . .See what evidence of the Global Leadership Performance Outcomes you find in their work.
Alix Rowe - Simple Augmented Reality - Customization
Sarah Mueller - Electronic Books - Innovation (assistant project manager for ebooks)
Global Collaboration Projects
If you're interested in participating in the NetGenEd Project or one of the other Flat ClassroomTM Projects, visit . . .
You might also be interested in these other opportunities to connect your students globally . . .
Global Issues Networks
Global Issues Network - students working together internationally to develop solutions for global issuesGlobal Citizen Corps - an international movement of youth who connect globally and act locally, determined to make a difference
CauseCast - explore issues while connecting with a community of people wanting to make a difference
DoSomething.org - using the power of online to get teens to do something good offline
TakingITGlobal - online community of youth interested in global issues and creating positive change
Youth Media Exchange - an online social network for youth interested in using digital media tools to share information on major global issues
The People Speak - a community of young people who are passionate about global issues
YouthNoise - find, explore, and network a cause
Voices of Youth (UNICEF) - explore, speak out, take action on issues related to human rights and social change
Global Classroom Connections
iEARN Global Collaboration Projects - join existing projects or create your ownGlobalSchoolNet.org - linking kids around the world
ePals Global Community - connect with global classrooms (using interactive map)
ICONS Project - secondary education simulation programs
Teacher Collaboration Portal on WikiEducator
TeachersConnecting - a place for K-12 teachers to find other teachers for cross-classroom collaboration
CILC Collaboration Center - a venue for educators to meet, create a collaborative project, and share their reflections
Global Education Collaborative (social network) - helping teachers and students reach the world
Skype for Educators - click the logo to add yourself to the spreadsheet
Around the World with 80 Schools - ongoing project for members to coordinate skype connections between students - challenge to connect with 80 schools from around the world
Adobe Youth Voices Collaboration Centre - share, research and discuss media
Collaborative Classroom Projects - from the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education
Journey North - connects classrooms from northern and southern hemispheres for inquiry-based projects around seasonal migration
Rock Our World - international project in which students on every continent collaborate to compose music and make videos
Global Education Conference - online Nov. 15-19
Additional Resources
Here are the master lists of all the videos created by students in the NetGenEd Project - there is one for each technology topic:
Mobile Computing - Open Content - Electronic Books - Simple Augmented Reality - Gesture Based Computing - Visual Data Analysis
Here are the two rubrics used to assess/judge/grade the students' videos and contributions to their team wiki pages
If you are interested in using Wikispaces, be sure to sign up for the free add-free wiki for teachers from Wikispaces for Educators
If you're interested in using Diigo, you can sign up for a Diigo Educator Account here
After watching Hans Rosling's TEDTalk on global population growth this week , you might be thinking about how to use Gapminder (visual data analysis) in the classroom
(Note: All TEDTalks include interactive transcripts if you click on the button at top right to open them. This is a great way to do text-based activities with the talks and even skip straight to a particular place in the video by clicking on the transcript!)
This Prezi has some ideas to get you started: Constructing Global Understanding with Gapminder
Constructing Global Understanding with Gapminder on Prezi
There is another similar tool that allows you to work with data visually called the Google Public Data Explorer .
Best wishes as you flatten your classrooms and connect your students to the flat world of their future!